This is another informative episode in the dedicated nursing life of the late Nora Hillman, whose earlier days in the profession were spent at Leamington Spa, Birmingham and Bristol.

    After being forced out of the Bristol Hospital by the Luftwaffe we eventually found a new home in an empty school at Weston-Super-Mare, Nora continues. It took a good deal of cleaning up as it had been used for mothers and babies.

    While this was being prepared our children (patients) were housed at the Weston and with patients from all other Bristol hospitals. The Matron here hated us, for the children made her nice tidy convalescent home (which was what it was) untidy and noisy.

    However, things got better when we moved into our own place. There was a nice large garden where we could have the children out all day if fit. We had folding beds for those who could not get up and canvas cribs for the babies. Of course they got very dirty at times when little friends who were up gave the ones in bed handfuls of soil, pine needles etc. to play with. Then there were the dear little boys who found Sister's tin of paint used for marking and painted a little girl green!

    Parents thought the gardens were lovely when they visited and were rather inclined to bring picnics and leave litter behind. One nice thing was that we could take children who were well enough down to play on the sand.

    We later had some quite bad raids here and I well remember trying to put out a bonfire in the garden which flared up during one of these when the ground was frozen hard and we could not raise a spadeful to put on it.    

I then went on to an Orthopaedic Hospital in Surrey, where I had charge of the little ones up to 5 years of age.